Church Planting FuelBox

There is much in this book that sounds like people that are disaffected with the church that they are in trying to reinvent a new way of doing church. The real value of the book was the attempt by Gibbs and Bolger to sum up what they saw as a definition of emerging churches. They assert that the church universal is an emerging church, for as the body of Christ here on earth, it awaits with eager anticipation the return of its Lord. (p43) They then outline three core practices which combine to create other practices that they find are common in these emerging churches.

The three core practices are (1) identifying with the life of Jesus, (2) transforming secular space and (3) living as community. They define the way of Jesus as His life and His engagement with His culture, as embodied in community and given expression in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not just His death and resurrection that needs to be concentrated on but the way that He lived out His life. They then argue that modernity created the scared/secular split back in the fourteenth century and that emerging churches are attempting to address that split as they pursue a sense of holism. The third of these core practices is based around the fact that the members of emerging churches lead highly communal lives, more like extended families and work hard at developing a community that expresses the Kingdom.

Gibbs and Bolger then expand the definition. They see emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. They expand the definition to include nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities. The book then goes on to unpack  each of these practices with anecdotal form various emerging churches.

The defining of these nine practices was the most useful part of the book because I think that it allows for a conversation to begin with existing churches about these practices. One of my frustrations is that much of what is written about the emerging church precludes any hope that an existing church can operate in a postmodern world. What I think is valuable about Gibb’s and Bolger’s offered definition is that an existing church can begin to envision how it might introduce these nine practices into the life of it’s ministry and mission. It will mean  a lot of work but I can see that it is within the reach of a congregation that is serious and willing to have a go.